Justin Lane/EPACarmelo Anthony got plenty of air time on Sunday. After scoring 42 points in a loss to the Miami Heat, he appeared in an episode of "Nurse Jackie."

Big-name
athletes tend to permeate different pop culture arenas whenever they land in
New York.

Knicks power
forward Amar'e Stoudemire has expressed an interest in fashion, which, in
addition to art, is something that consumes teammate Tyson Chandler. Rangers
center Sean Avery has also professed an interest in fashion (and the spotlight
in general) while everyone from Babe Ruth to Reggie Jackson to Walt Frazier
partied with the biggest celebrities of their generations.

Now it's
Carmelo Anthony's turn to sample the spotlight away from an athletic arena.

After
scoring 42 points in a loss to the Miami Heat on Sunday, Melo appeared on
Showtime's "Nurse Jackie" as a former baseball player who was attending rehab
with the main character. Since I only watch re-runs of "Get a Life," I'm not
familiar with the show, but I sought out the most-biased review I could find.

Plenty of
people who tuned in last night's episode of the Showtime series Nurse Jackie probably found themselves
saying, "Hey, isn't that Carmelo Anthony?" And it was: Melo appeared
as a patient in a rehab center -- yet Showtime PR reps hardly knocked
themselves out ballyhooing the gig. Why? Maybe because his "acting"
was so lame that it calls into question one of the presumed reasons he made the
leap from the Nuggets to the New York Knicks in the first place.

As you can
imagine, the writer—who we can only assume is a Nuggets fan—might not be in
love with Anthony after Melo forced his way out of Denver a season ago.

Nothing else really clicked, either, starting with the bizarre
guest-starring appearance of New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony. He played
the recovering athlete in rehab and, for this sports nut at least, was nothing
but a distraction from what should have been a serious storyline.

But much like Anthony's late-February swoon on the court,
Anthony could always redeem himself from Sunday's acting performance. It's
unclear if this character will appear again, but Anthony will certainly
continue to get offers as long as he's the leading scorer for one of the world's
must popular sports teams.